Spy School
by gladrags2012
Summary: The team is sent to spy at a language school which is being used to recruit agents for SKUL.
1. Chapter 1

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High.

**Chapter 1**

Rose, Carrie and Oscar were sitting outside the head of MI 9's office. Frank was pacing. They'd been told to wait for a new assignment, but for some reason this made Frank nervous.

"Chill Frank," said Carrie, rolling her eyes. "All we're doing is waiting for a job, right ?"

"Yes, yes absolutely. Nothing to worry about," answered Frank, still sweeping up and down the corridor like some deranged game character.

"No, seriously chill Frank," begged Oscar. "I'm starting to feel sea-sick watching you walking up and down."

"Oh, sorry," said Frank, finally sitting down on one of the chairs opposite the agents. He jiggled his knees up and down and tapped his fingers on the arm of the chair.

"Thanks Frank. That's much better," said Carrie, a little sarcastically. She looked over at Rose who couldn't help a half smothered giggle.

Suddenly the Head's office door opened and all four agents jumped to their feet.

"Thankyou for waiting. Come in please," instructed the Head briskly.

The agents quickly took their seats and noticed with disappointment that Stark was already sitting at the side of the room, alongside an older, very wiry man in a leather jacket. They didn't have much time to check each other out before the Head started talking.

"We have received intelligence regarding a possible situation at a foreign language school on the Suffolk coast," she began. She pointed a remote control device at a screen at the end of the room. They all turned to look. The first picture was of a large stately home type of building with turrets and

huge windows.

"Looks like Hogwarts," whispered Carrie to Rose. She nodded.

"This is Long Slipper Hall," continued the Head. "It is currently used as an English language boarding school for foreign children. In its former life it was a top secret military research base, used by the RAF and Royal Navy. As the others looked sharply at her, she waved her hand calmly. "Don't worry, there is no longer any trace of the old research base in the building. It was decommissioned many years ago and served briefly as an army rehabilitation centre and now as a school." She flicked the remote again and a photograph of a very stern-looking man appeared. "This is the current head-teacher, Dr Jeremy Fairweather," she continued. We has previously taught at a number of private schools, but was dismissed from his previous post under mysterious circumstances.

"It has come to our attention that some of the students attending the school have links to the Russian mafia and other criminal organisations and that the school has become a recruitment centre also for SKUL. I want you to infiltrate the school and investigate any illegal activities. Chief Agent Stark, please ?" she gestured to the very smug looking agent at the side of the room.

"Right, listen carefully," he instructed. All four agent rolled their eyes and reluctantly turned to face him. "This assignment is not going to follow our usual system," he said. "For this assignment it is going to be necessary for all four of you to infiltrate the school. Agent London is going to take up a vacant post as a specialist science and technology language teacher. Agent Cole, you are going to pose as the son of a Russian oligarch. Agents Gupta and Stewart will also be given jobs as part of the housekeeping staff."

Carrie interrupted, "What ? So we get to do the cleaning do we ? Can't wait !"

"That's enough Agent Stewart," warned Stark. "Since neither you nor Agent Gupta have the language skills necessary to pose as foreign students, and you are not old enough to act as teachers, there was no other way of finding you postings on the site. As it was, we had to create a couple of vacancies for you by, erm, encouraging two existing members of staff to, erm, leave."

"Why did they have to, erm, leave ?" asked Carrie.

"Oh well, the usual work permit, visa type of stuff," mumbled Stark, looking shifty. "Never mind about that. That's not your problem. Your job is to get into the school and conduct a point by point search of the building, look into the activities of the staff and students and report back anything unusual. You are not to get personally involved in anything. As soon as you have evidence of criminal activity, you are to report to us and MI 9 will carry out any enforcement actions which are required. Is that clear ?"

They all nodded and muttered agreement. Then they all looked at the other man, who had been sitting quietly throughout the introductions.

"Ah yes," said the Head. "I haven't introduced our guest. "This is Professor Kalkfarben. It was he who first alerted us to the activities going on at the school. He was recruited to teach at the school last year and became suspicious of some of its activities. He will be returning to his teaching duties and will assist you in your investigations. Any questions ?"

Oscar was staring at the Professor in an odd way.

"Do you have a question Agent Cole ?" Stark asked sarcastically.

"Erm, unusual name..." said Oscar. The Professor looked sharply at him, but didn't say anything.

"When do we start ?" asked Rose.

"You will be sent separately to arrive at the school over the weekend," replied the Head. "The plan is that you remain in position for approximately two weeks and then you will be extracted if no progress has been made. As soon as you have solid evidence of what is going on, you will be extracted immediately."

"How are we going to cover this with our parents and the school ?" asked Rose.

Stark answered, "As far as the school and your parents are concerned you are going on an adventure residential fortnight as a reward for your schoolwork and as a special team-building activity. Obviously, this isn't an issue for Agent Cole. We have informed your Guardian of your latest assignment. At least we tried to. Having difficulty getting hold of him."

"Oh he's not there," said Oscar casually. "He's been off on assignment for the last two weeks. Not sure when he gets back."

Frank and the others looked at Oscar, horrified. "Who's been looking after you ?" asked Frank.

"Well, I can look after myself can't I," said Oscar, looking a bit annoyed. Frank thought back to the previous two weeks and remembered how Oscar had been getting scruffier and scruffier day by day. "I can stick a pizza in the oven the same as the next person can't I ?" asked Oscar. What was all the fuss about ? It wasn't like he needed anyone was it ?

"Well, that's all Agents. Report to your HQ immediately and begin your preparations, " ordered the Head. They all stood and left. Oscar glanced back over his shoulder at the Professor who remained in the room with the Head and Chief Agent Stark. The Professor was taking a good look at him. Oscar shivered slightly as he left the room.

As soon as they were out of earshot the others all immediately rounded on Oscar.

"Oscar, why didn't you say you were living on your own ? I can't believe you didn't tell me !" said Frank.

"Yeah Oscar, no wonder you look like you've been living rough for the last week," said Rose.

"Hey, hang on a minute," protested Oscar. "It is called 'deep cover' you know."

"Yeah. Just depends what you've been covering yourself with," quipped Carrie.

Oscar sighed dramatically. It was going to be a long trip back to HQ !


	2. Chapter 2

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters I have borrowed from MI High etc.. This is my first try at FanFiction so thankyou Mockingjay for the review.

After much hassle and promising to tell Frank immediately if his Guardian was ever to go away on assignment, holiday, or for any other reason, Oscar was finally left in peace. What a pain ! He had thought the one good thing, well the only good thing, about not having any parents was that you didn't get hassled over every little thing. Oscar's Guardian didn't pay much attention to what Oscar was doing and this suited him fine. He was perfectly capable of looking after himself. He'd done it for long enough now hadn't he ? And another thing, what was wrong with his laundry ? There was no need for Carrie to start passing comments about how he kept his jumper on all the time so you couldn't see his shirts weren't ironed. Who cared about a few creases ? He wasn't supposed to be "Perfect Peter".

The last thing Frank had said, was that if Oscar started to look too messy then the school might start asking questions about whether or not he was being looked after properly. They didn't want any awkward questions from Social Services. This had made Oscar think. He didn't want Social Services on his back as well. He guessed he'd have to find the iron. That was all he needed ! It actually took quite a lot of effort keeping on top of shopping, cooking and washing up as well as homework and all the other stuff for MI 9. Keeping his languages up to scratch took up more time than school homework. Well, the amount of time he put into school homework anyway. Actually, he had to admit he was really tired.

Oscar never liked to show how he was feeling, but all the criticism and complaining had got him down. By the time they reached HQ, he was sitting in the corner of the van staring at the floor. The others were chatting about the assignment. A silent Oscar was nothing unusual.

Back at base they started putting together what they needed. Frank was selecting gadgets. Carrie and Rose were researching the background for their identities and Oscar was supposed to be checking out his new identity. Only he wasn't. He was trying to find out where Professor Kalkfarben came from. Eventually Carrie came over to see how he was getting on. She was feeling a bit guilty because she'd given him such a hard time over looking after himself. Thinking about it, she'd never had to worry about stuff like that because her Mum did it all for her. Technically, she was in charge of all her stuff for school, but really she knew her Mum was always checking up on her and making sure she was on top of everything. It was a pain sometimes being asked dum questions about everyday stuff, but on the other hand, she knew her Mum wouldn't let her make a complete mess of everything. Oscar didn't have anyone keeping an eye on him, so maybe she should cut him a bit of slack when he didn't exactly get it all perfect.

"Hey Osc, what are you doing ?" she asked. Oscar looked over his shoulder from the computer warily, but saw that she was just interested in what he was doing.

"There's something weird about that guy, Professor Kalkfarben," he said.

"He just looked like any other old guy to me," said Carrie, puzzled. "What's weird about him ?"

"Well, there's his name for a start," said Oscar. "I've never heard of anyone called 'Kalkfarben' before."

"So ?" said Carrie. "You can't expect to know every possible name in every possible language can you ? Don't you think you're asking a bit too much of yourself ?"

"No, it's not that," said Oscar. "It means 'Whitewash'. Who's called 'Whitewash' ? It's weird."

"Oh, yeah. Have you found out anything about him then ?" asked Carrie.

"No, nothing," said Oscar frustrated.

"Nothing unusual ?" asked Carrie.

"No, nothing at all," said Oscar. "It's like he doesn't exist."

They were interrupted at this point by Frank who wanted to instruct them on the features of his latest set of gadgets. They were going to keep their standard pencil communicators and spy-pods. In addition Rose was going to take the photographic contact lenses, Carrie was taking bugs for listening in on people and Oscar was to take some tracking devices. Oscar also had a microphone hidden in a badge which transmitted directly to Frank.

"You can share them amongst yourselves as necessary," said Frank. "I don't want to give a full set of devices to any one of you in case you become exposed in some way. I do, however, want all of you to take this emergency alarm." He handed each of them what looked like a key ring. "Pull on the chain and it will set off an alarm which I will be monitoring. If you run into any trouble, you are to call for help immediately. I don't want any of you putting yourselves in danger. This is an intelligence gathering exercise. You are not responsible for closing down any activities which we find. Obviously I shall be on hand if any emergencies come up. Any questions ?"

Everyone shook their heads.

"OK, let's get started."

Everyone had a different way of getting to the school. Rose and Carrie travelled by train to the local station and then shared a taxi from there. Since they were going to spend some time together, it made sense to explain how they had got to know one another. Frank drove there in an older car than he usually used to help his cover as a teacher.

Oscar had the most complicated route. He had to be slipped into Immigration at Heathrow airport so he could pretend to arrive on a flight from Russia. He had got a full set of Russian clothing which had been provided for him. There was also a selection of more pricey designer gear. He wasn't sure that he was going to get to wear any of that. This was to help make him look like the son of a rich man. He'd also been given some Russian books. He had spent time roughing up some of them, so they didn't all look brand new. He'd given the same treatment to the brand new Russian-English phrase book that he had been provided with. He just had to hope that nobody at the school had ever met the real Alexi Orlov. Alexi was a real 16 year old son of a real Russian oligarch. He had been told however, that the real Alexi was moved from location to location in secret on a regular basis to avoid kidnap attempts. Oscar could sympathise with him. He knew what it felt like to live in hiding all the time. The school had been warned by his "father" to keep his presence a secret, to avoid exposing him to danger. Hopefully, this would prevent anyone noticing there were two Alexi Orlovs running around.

Oscar walked out of the arrivals hall, towing his new suitcase and searched the line of drivers holding up signs. He was supposed to be getting a lift to the school from the airport. He was still feeling pretty tired after a long week so he nearly missed the sign with "Mr. Popov" written on it. He'd forgotten he was supposed to be under an alias, again to avoid "Alexi" being kidnapped. He walked over to the short, balding man holding the cardboard sign.

"Hello, I am Alexi Popov," said Oscar in stilted English with a strong Russian accent. "You are for me, yes ?"

"That I am, lad. Follow me," instructed the man, taking Oscar's suitcase handle from him. He took Oscar out to a taxi, stowed his luggage and offered him a water bottle from a cool box in the boot. Oscar took it gratefully and got into the back of the car. The driver tried to make small talk with him, but Oscar made such a poor effort of answering in broken English that the driver soon gave up, put the radio on quietly and left him to himself. After a short time, Oscar fell asleep.

Carrie and Rose's taxi pulled up outside Long Slipper Hall. Just like the photograph which the Head of MI 9 had shown them it was huge and covered in turrets and other twiddly bits. All kinds of creeper and ivy were growing up many parts of the wall. A neat, middle-aged woman came out to meet them.

"You must be Miss Stewart and Miss Gupta," she said looking them over. "I must say, you look a little young," she said doubtfully.

"Oh everyone says I look young for my age," said Rose.

"Me too," said Carrie.

Apparently satisfied, the woman led them inside.

"I am Mrs Peabody, the housekeeper. I am in charge of all the domestic arrangements in the school and you will both be reporting to me," she said. "First I will take you to your quarters where you can leave your things, and then I will show you round the premises and explain your duties. I only have an hour before I have to organise the evening meal preparations, so we need to get moving."

Rose and Carrie looked at one another. They had a feeling they were going to be kept busy.

Exactly one hour later, the two girls were lying on their beds in a shared bedroom at the back of the house. All of the household staff had rooms in this part of the building. They had been given a lightning tour of the parts of the building where they would be working. Their duties were basically cleaning and laundry, for the students and the teaching staff. All the household staff had to do their own. "Thank goodness we're only going to be here for two weeks," said Carrie. "There is way too much work to do. How are we going to find time for spying ?"

"Well, we do get the afternoons and every other evening off," answered Rose. "We'll just have to do the best we can. Oscar and Frank will be here as well so they will be helping."

"Yeah, you're right," said Carrie. "When are we supposed to start ?"

"15 minutes," said Rose. "Better get ready and go downstairs. Oh, yeah and remember NO FRATERNISING WITH THE STUDENTS. " Mrs Peabody had made it plain that none of the household staff were allowed to mix with the students. Giggling, the two of them changed into their uniforms of black skirt and white blouse and went downstairs to report for duty.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High.

Oscar woke up suddenly. He couldn't remember where he was. He couldn't remember who he was. He felt the panic rising and he gasped for breath. The taxi was just pulling into a gravel driveway. It was the sudden jolts and wallowing of the car which had woken him up. Seeing the big house at the end of the drive he remembered what he was doing here. Then he remembered who he was supposed to be and the panic subsided.

"Here we are Mr Popov," said the driver.

"What ?" asked Oscar. He'd forgotten he was pretending to be someone else, pretending to be someone else. "Oh, oh yeah," he said. Then he remembered he was supposed to be having trouble speaking English, and muttered a few curses in Russian. This mission was going to be a disaster if he didn't get his act together quickly. The car pulled up in front of the main door and he ran his fingers through his mussed up blond curls before half staggering out of the car door. The taxi driver handed him his luggage before wishing him luck and driving off.

A tall, thin man came out of the building. Holding out his hand, the man said, "You must be Alexi. Welcome to Language School. I'm Dr. Fairweather."

Shaking hands, Oscar said "Hello, Dr Fairweather."

"Very well done, Alexi. We'll soon have you chatting in English," said the man encouragingly. "Come in," he instructed. Oscar followed the man into the building. He introduced Oscar to a severe looking woman in a uniform. "This is Mrs Peabody our housekeeper,' said Dr Fairweather. "She will show you to your room and tell you where to come and eat. Dinner will be in 20 minutes in the dining room."

Oscar followed Mrs Peabody up to his room. This was a small room with a single bed, a desk, wardrobe and some shelves. It had its own small shower room through a door. It reminded him of the first safe-house he stayed in after his mother ran away with SKUL. The only difference was that this room had a window, looking out onto a garden. The safe-house room had no windows. He shivered a little at the bad memories which started flooding in. He noticed that Mrs Peabody was looking at him closely. "Where is TV ?" he asked, trying to distract her.

"Not in your room," said Mrs Peabody slowly and clearly. "Downstairs. You can watch TV together with the other students." She tapped her watch. "Dinner is at 6pm," she said. "You get ready now."

Mrs Peabody walked back downstairs to the kitchen. It had been a long day. Two new girls and neither of them looked over 16 years old. Goodness only knew where the school was recruiting staff from now. The last two had to leave after the immigration people came to check on their visas. Now she was going to have to train up two new girls. At least they didn't sound foreign. They shouldn't need visas. The new student at least seemed reasonably well behaved. Some of these foreign boys were very rude. By the way they behaved you would have thought they owned half of the country. It would be a nice change to have a quieter one. He did seem a bit sad though. Mrs Peabody thought a lot of these boys seemed a bit lonely under all the bravado.

The kitchen was buzzing with activity. Carrie and Rose were being shown where all the cutlery was kept. Their first task was to set the tables for dinner. Dinner was eaten at long tables laid out in the large dining room. Quickly they put out the cutlery, added glasses and jugs filled with water. As they were finishing, the food was brought out in large bowls which were placed into heated trolleys with ladles or spoons thrown into each one. Each girl was instructed to take a place behind one of the trolleys, ready to serve up the food. People started pouring into the room. First came the teaching staff, closely followed by streams of students. The majority were boys, but there were girls too. There was a cacophony of different languages. Rose picked up a little French, but not much else. Soon she was too busy serving up food to pay attention to who was in front of her.

Suddenly she heard a familiar voice speaking with a different accent. "Pasta please," said Oscar, smiling at her. She smiled back and gave him a bowl full of the pasta and sauce. "Thankyou," he said, still in his thick accent. He left to find a place to eat somewhere. Then Frank appeared at her elbow.

"Everything OK ?" he whispered.

"No problems so far," she whispered back.

"Pasta please," asked Frank more loudly. He winked at Rose as he took his full bowl away and joined a group of teachers at a table. Mrs Peabody put her head round the kitchen door and checked on the two new girls. They seemed to be getting on with their work reasonably well. Good. One less thing to worry about.

Frank decided to get to work. He found a chair in the middle of a group of teaching staff. "Hello, Frank Manchester," he introduced himself. The teacher nearest reached out and shook hands.

"Hi, Marty Young," said the man shaking hands. "I'm the business language specialist. You're the new science and tech guy aren't you ?" Frank nodded. "What brings you here then ?" asked Marty.

"Well, I thought I'd give it a try. I'm between long contracts so a short term contract was quite handy," explained Frank.

"Yeah, the job market is pretty tough at the moment isn't it ?" said Marty. "I only meant to come here on a six month contract and I've ended up staying for 18 months !" He didn't sound too upset.

"What do think of the setup here then ?" asked Frank.

"It's not bad," said Marty. "The kids are all filthy rich. You should see some of the cars they arrive in. Armour plated Rolls Royces; the lot. They come from all over, but most are from Russia and the old Soviet states. I'm not sure that all their families' business interests are entirely legal, if you know what I mean." He tapped his nose at this. Frank nodded conspiratorially. "I look at some of them and the first thing I think is 'drugs money' !" said Marty in a whisper. "Don't let on I told you that, will you ?" has asked looking worried. Frank assured him he wouldn't breathe a word. "You've got to feel a bit sorry for some of them. They're often sent here to keep them safe. Half of them are running away from something, or someone."

Frank introduced himself to more of the teaching staff, but nobody was quite as forthcoming as Marty. He decided that Marty was definitely the relationship to cultivate. He looked around and spotted Oscar sitting at a table in conversation with several other students.

Oscar had found a table where Russian was being spoken. "Can I sit here ?" he asked in Russian. A boy of a similar age gestured to the empty chair.

"Sure. You new?" he asked.

"Yeah. I'm Alexi," said Oscar putting out his hand. The other boy shook hands.

"Hi, I'm Illya," he said. "Where do you come from ?" he asked.

"Oh you know. All over," said Oscar vaguely. Illya didn't seem surprised that he hadn't really answered the question.

"Know what you mean. It's a pain isn't it ?" said Illya. "I've been in three different countries in the last year and a half. Hey, Pavel, you had a kidnap attempt last year didn't you ?" he asked another, older boy at the same table.

"Yeah. It was a blast," boasted the other boy. "Our driver saw them off though. Wow, what a drive that was ! We were driving down the pavement and everything. The bodyguard was shooting out of the back window. Crazy" he laughed.

"Weren't you scared ?" asked Oscar, shocked by the boy's self-assurance.

"Scared, who are you kidding ?" laughed the boy. "My Dad would soon sort out those .." he tailed off suddenly, as if he'd said too much. "I've got to go now. I need to study. See you Illya and ?" he said, looking at Oscar.

"Alexi," said Oscar.

"Sure, see you later Alexi," said the boy as he took his plate away and left the room.

"You had any problems ?" Illya asked Oscar.

"Well, my Dad keeps moving me around. He's worried that something could happen. Sometimes I have a different name. It gets really confusing sometimes," said Oscar.

Illya looked sympathetic. "I know what you mean," he said. "I'm trying to get to university. I want to study languages, but my Dad wants me to go into the oil business. My Dad's in the oil business. I don't want to go into my Dad's business. I'd have to spend the whole of my life hiding and moving." He sounded depressed and Oscar felt sorry for him.

"Well, you're in the right place to learn a language," he pointed out.

"You going into your Dad's business ?" asked Illya.

Oscar thought about this. Weirdly, he had gone into the same business as his father, although he couldn't remember his father. It had seemed like the obvious thing to do at the time. "No, I don't want to either," answered Oscar.

"Well, I think you and I are going to be good friends," smiled Illya. "Here's to freedom !" he said, raising his glass.

"To freedom," grinned Oscar raising his glass. They both tossed their remaining water down their throats in one.

"We're not allowed the smash the glasses," whispered Illya in his ear. "They don't do it here. You're not allowed to drink Vodka either."

"No !" whispered Oscar, faking surprise.

"No. You have to be 18 years old to have alcohol in this country. You can't get it anywhere, not even in the restaurants. It's so uncivilised !" complained Illya. "You should have heard the Uzbekistanis when they found out. 'We always drink toasts in Vodka after a meal' they were saying. Wow, they were mad. They didn't get any though. Oh, and you can't smoke in the building either."

"I don't smoke," said Oscar.

"Me neither," said Illya. "All the Uzbekistanis do though. They all creep outside and hide behind the garages for a smoke. You can always find them there. You can always smell them when they come back," he laughed.

Oscar made a mental note of this. It might be useful later.


	4. Chapter 4

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High. I promise the action is going to start building up a little from now on. Hope you enjoy it.

The next day, Carrie and Rose were kept busy all morning. They had to set the dining room for breakfast, clear up and then start stripping the beds of students who had left, or who were due for a change of sheets. Carrie was pushing a large trolley filled with laundry when she bumped into Rose wheeling a mop bucket along the corridor.

"I know how Frank feels now," hissed Rose to Carrie. "I never want to see another bathroom as long as I live."

"You're not kidding," said Carrie. "How many beds are there in this place anyway ? Lucky Oscar as usual only has to learn a language he was born speaking. How does he always get away with it ? Have you seen him today ?"

"I saw him for a minute at breakfast, but I didn't get to speak to him. We should contact Frank when we finish after lunch and see if they've found anything. I haven't seen anything unusual, have you ?" asked Rose.

"Well, only if you're counting two empty vodka bottles and a pile of cigarette packets," said Carrie.

"No way !" hissed Rose. "Where did you find them ?"

"They were in one of the empty student bedrooms," said Carrie. "I've had a quick look around some of the rooms where I was changing the bedclothes, but I didn't have time for a proper search. They just have normal teenage stuff. If they've got vodka bottles, they're doing a much better job of hiding them while they're full."

"Wow, I wonder what happens if they get caught drinking," said Rose. "Why don't you show the bottles to Mrs Peabody ?" she asked.

"Rose, you are so typical," laughed Carrie. "It's not exactly going to get me in the students' good books if I shop them to the staff is it ? I'll stick the bottles in the kitchen bin. If anyone asks me where they came from I'll tell them. The trouble is, I can't read anything in their rooms because it's all foreign language. It's a pity we can't sneak Oscar round to read it all. He's the only one who can read it and he's the only one who can't go touring round the other students' bedrooms."

"I know," said Rose. "Why don't we swap over tomorrow. I'll do the bedrooms and I'll take the photographic contact lenses. I'll photograph any letters and documents that look interesting and then Oscar can translate them all later. That'll wipe the smile off his face."

"Yeah, that should keep him busy for a while," laughed Carrie. "Come on, we'd better get moving before we're spotted." They set off again to finish their rounds before lunch.

Frank had been busy all morning teaching. It was harder work than he'd expected. It didn't help that half the students really couldn't care less and other half seemed to think they knew it all already. He had deliberately taken some lower spec technology then he would normally use at work and so had suffered half an hour of teasing from his first group of students about his "ancient" mobile phone. One of the older boys called Pavel had been particularly scathing about his lack of apps.

"You should not be teaching technology Mr Manchester, you should be teaching history," he had joked and the rest had howled with laughter, once they'd understood the joke. Frank was starting to wait for the pause between the end of a joke and the laughter as everyone struggled to translate the English. Unfortunately he was starting to find this funny himself and so was having real trouble not giggling. He had noticed that the students found it a lot easier to understand him than they did each other.

Mercifully, lunchtime arrived, and he waited at the entrance to the dining room for Oscar to appear. "Ah, you must be Alexi ?" he asked Oscar as he arrived with a group of other students.

"Yes, I am Alexi," answered Oscar in his Russian accent. "We have lesson today yes ?"

"Yes, your father booked a one-to-one for you. See you at 2 o'clock then ?" said Frank.

"Yes, see you at 2 o'clock," repeated Oscar. He took a deep breath as Frank went off to eat with the other teachers. This was their pre-arranged meeting to discuss progress, and he hadn't made any. So far he had found exactly nothing. He'd talked with as many of the Russian students as he could and they all seemed perfectly normal, for fabulously wealthy, spoilt rich teenagers with parents involved in various degrees of illegal activity. If they were being recruited for undercover activities they were going to be rubbish at them. None of them could keep a secret. At least, they gave that impression, he reminded himself. It could be a really successful double bluff.

As usual, Oscar was finding it easier and easier to keep up his new identity. He had started speaking Russian first and English second. He was starting to think in Russian. It was harder pretending that he didn't speak good English. During one lesson he had slipped up and come out with a complicated sentence without thinking. Illya had been there and gave him a funny look.

"Hey, you speak really good English already, what are you doing here ?" he asked in Russian.

"Oh, just hit lucky I guess," covered Oscar, going red. He was going to have to be much more careful. Illya seemed to be very observant. So, it was actually pretending not to speak English which was giving him the headache he now had, and not trying to speak Russian. When he sat down to lunch though, he found that he did not have the worst headache in the room. That belonged to Oleg, a big blonde Russian boy, who already spoke excellent English.

"Oleg, you look like you've been up all night on the vodka," joked Pavel.

"You can laugh," complained Oleg. He looked dreadful. "My head is splitting and I just want to sleep."

"What were you doing all night then ?" asked Illya.

"That's the weird thing," said Oleg. "I can't remember." The others laughed at him.

"Yeah, we know what you were doing alright," laughed Pavel, waving an imaginary glass towards his mouth. "If they catch you they will send you home," he warned, wagging his finger in mock disapproval.

"But I wasn't," protested Oleg. "At least, I don't think so. Oh man, I have got to go to bed. My head is killing me." With this he got up, meal untouched and left the room. The others watched him go in amusement.

"Silly boy !" laughed Pavel. "I wish he knew where he got it from."

"It could be you next time," warned Oscar.

"No it will never be me. I have been here for 3 weeks and I am still terrible at English," said Pavel proudly. "It is the kids who are good at English who get the headaches. It is obviously very bad for you to speak English."

The others laughed at this ludicrous claim. Oscar noticed that Illya wasn't laughing though. He was deep in thought. "What's the matter ?" Oscar asked him.

"Oh, nothing," said Illya smiling. "Just thinking."

"Pavel thinks that is very bad for you," joked Oscar. Illya just grinned at him. "Who's been getting headaches ?" he asked.

"Oh, almost every day there's a kid in here complaining of a headache," said Illya. "Always the ones who are really trying to learn English. Not the ones like Pavel. His family just send him here to keep him out of the way. I guess it's just the work."

"Yeah, I guess so," agreed Oscar.

"You'd better be careful, if you start having one-to-ones you might get the headaches," warned Illya, jokingly. Oscar just smiled. "I think we have Professor Kalkfarben this afternoon," added Illya. "I don't like him."

"Me neither," agreed Oscar. "He gives me the creeps." Since this was true, he didn't have to pretend. He'd seen the Professor staring at him from across the room several times already. He hoped he wasn't going to blow his cover.

Later with Frank, Oscar finally got to relax into his own personality. They discussed progress, or lack of it and Frank updated Oscar with the girls' plans for the next day. Rose was going to take the data from the contact lenses with her spy-pod and send it to Oscar's spy-pod for him to read. Oscar groaned.

"How am I going to get through it all ?" he asked. "There could be loads of it, and I don't speak every single language that's spoken here."

"You have a free afternoon tomorrow," reminded Frank. "You can spend it going through the material. Anything you don't understand, just send it on to me and I will send it off to MI 9 headquarters for translation. They'll let us know if there is anything interesting in it."

Oscar reluctantly agreed. They had come to the end of their session and Oscar left to go to his class with Professor Kalkfarben. The professor seemed to encourage general conversation amongst his class. They chose the topics but they had to discuss them in English. This was easier for some than for others. The Professor mostly listened intently and corrected any mistakes. Although he had been dreading it, the hour wasn't too bad.

There was more general chat over dinner, but Oscar was no nearer identifying suspicious characters amongst the students than on his first day. He sat in the TV lounge for a couple of hours listening in on the conversations, but again there was nothing interesting. Well, apart from Pavel's description of how two of his father's rivals had both come to sticky ends in mysterious circumstances. Oscar decided that Pavel's family were best avoided.

Frustrated, he headed up to his room. He read a Russian spy novel in bed for a while. The hero was a Russian spy who defeated the corrupt British spies with ease. It was actually pretty good fun. Turning off his main light, Oscar tweaked the curtain open a little to let in some glow from the security lights outside. He didn't like his room to get too dark. Eventually he nodded off but woke with a start some time later.

He checked his watch. It was 1 o'clock in the morning. There was a sound outside. Putting on his dressing gown and picking up his torch, he silently opened his bedroom door and slipped out into the corridor. The corridor was dark and cold. He shivered and pulled the dressing gown closer around him. Looking round, he could see nobody. Listening carefully, he heard a creak of a floorboard in the distance. Slowly and carefully he started walking towards the sound, trying to keep to the outer edges of the corridor. This was supposed to reduce the risk of the floorboards creaking. They had been taught this in their spy training. They hadn't been told anything about odd bits of furniture littered about the place though. He nearly fell headlong over a chair at the side of the corridor. He froze after kicking the chair and listened. Nothing. Sighing, he waited. There was another faint sound.

He climbed a flight of stairs and walked down another corridor. He turned a corner and walked nose to nose into someone else. They both grabbed one another and the other person turned on a torch. It was Frank. "Oscar !" he hissed. "Thank goodness ! What are you doing out here ?"

"I heard a sound," said Oscar. "I followed it up here."

"Me too," said Frank. "Listen !"

They both stood in silence for several minutes, but apart from muffled sounds outside the building, there were no further noises inside.

"Are you sure you didn't pass anyone ?" asked Frank.

"Pretty sure," said Oscar.

"Me too," said Frank. Sighing he said, "Well, we'd better get back to our rooms. We don't want to get caught out here. Keep your eyes peeled."

Oscar found his way back to his room with some difficulty. The building was a maze of corridors and stairs. It would be pretty easy to shake off anyone who was following you if you knew the place well enough. As he was going back into his room he thought he heard a bedroom door quietly closing. He thought it might have been Illya's, but he couldn't be sure.

Shrugging, he climbed back into bed and went quickly to sleep. He dreamt he was being chased round the dark corridors by a mad Professor Kalkfarben, wielding a huge knife. He found a secret door in one of the wooden panelled walls and escaped. It was quite a relief to wake up in the morning.


	5. Chapter 5

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High. I promise the action is going to start building up a little from now on. Hope you enjoy it.

Rose spent her morning stripping beds at top speed and photographing letters and notebooks she pulled out of the students' desks and shelves. She had to work quickly, worrying constantly that she would be caught going through the students' things. It was important also to replace things as she had found them. If anyone complained, she would be the first person suspected. She finished all the students rooms and moved on to the teaching staff bedrooms. She had been given a separate skeleton key which gave her access to their rooms. Working through the list of rooms she had been given to change, all was going well until she came to one door which would not open. She struggled to get the key to turn, but it subbornly refused to budge. The name on the door was 'Professor Kalkfarben'.

Puzzled, Rose put her contacts safely away in her pocket and returned downstairs with the laundry trolley. She had instructions to return her keys to Mrs Peabody as soon as she had finished. As she handed them over she explained that she had been unable to open the Professor's door.

"Well, that is odd," said Mrs Peabody. "That key is supposed to open all the doors. I had better get the caretaker to go and oil the lock this afternoon. Thankyou for letting me know. I will inform Professor Kalkfarben that we were unable to deal with his bedding today and put him on the list for tomorrow. Hopefully he will understand."

Rose reported for dinner duty as usual. Frank let her know that he had received all of the images and sent them on to Oscar who would work on them that afternoon. Rose told Frank about not being able to get into the Professor's room. Carrie had joined them by this time.

"Oscar said he was a bit weird," said Carrie.

"In what way ?" asked Frank.

"Oscar said that Kalkfarben is German for Whitewash, and he'd never heard of anyone called 'Whitewash'," explained Carrie. "Oh, and when he checked up on him, he couldn't find anything."

"Anything unusual you mean ?" asked Rose.

"No, anything at all," said Carrie.

"That is odd," said Frank worried. "He's the whole reason we are here in the first place. If there's something wrong about him, this whole mission could be compromised."

"What if he's working for SKUL ?" asked Rose. "Nobody told us anything about him."

"Well, I'm sure that Agent Stark would have carried out any necessary security checks," said Frank.

Rose and Carrie looked at him. "OK, you may have a point," he added. "Just to be on the safe side, why don't you try to get access to his room ? Oscar is going to be tied up all afternoon and I have classes. Check the notices to see when Kalkfarben has classes this afternoon and try to access his room then. Look for clues to his background and anything which might explain what he is doing here. I will keep an eye on him and warn you if I think he is heading up to his room. Be careful !"

"Chill Frank," assured Carrie. "We're always careful, aren't we Rose ?" Rose didn't look so sure. "Oh, come on !" said Carrie.

Later that afternoon, Oscar was lying on his bed in his room staring at the Spy-pod. He was having to alter the focus and zoom in and out of all the images which Rose had taken. It was time-consuming and boring. Once he could read the text it was usually disappointing or plain embarrassing. There were a lot of letters to girlfriends and boyfriends. They fell into the embarrassing category. Then there were letters to Mums and Dads, mostly boring. Some were in languages he couldn't read. Ukrainian and Georgian were out of this reach. Those he simply sent to Frank. Basically, there was a whole lot of nothing. He was deep in some boring notes about Russian history when there was a knock at his door. Absentmindedly, he said, "Come in."

The door opened and it was Illya. "Oh, there you are. I've been looking all over for you. Didn't realise you were studying. What's that ?" he asked looking at Oscar's Spy-pod.

Oscar froze in mid-translation. He'd forgotten he was holding the Spy-pod in full view. Desperately he tried to think of something. "This, oh, my Dad got it for me. It's a prototype, you can't get it in the shops yet."

Interested, Illya asked "So what's it called ?"

"Its, erm .." desperately Oscar tried to think of something, and then said the first words that popped into his head. "It's the new I-spud," he said. Illya looked amused.

"The what ?" he asked.

"Yeah, the I-spud," said Oscar frantically filling. "It's the upgraded I-pad, only more, you know, potato shaped ?" he trailed off.

Illya was looking at him in total disbelief. "Okaaay" he said. "Well, anyway, you haven't forgotten the big dinner tonight have you ? You have haven't you ?" This was because of Oscar's blank face. "The big meal downstairs, 7 pm with the tutors ? Dress up formal ?"

"Oh yeah. I forgot about that," replied Oscar.

"Boy, you have some work to do !" laughed Illya.

"What do you mean ?" asked Oscar, still wearing the same jeans he'd arrived in and with his hair wild from lying on the bed.

"You don't really do 'dressed up' do you ?" Illya teased. "You'd better get started. It's going to take you a while !" Still laughing, he left Oscar's room.

Oscar looked down at himself. He couldn't see what all the fuss was about. Then he went into the bathroom and looked in the mirror. Hm, maybe he could tidy his hair up a little. He flicked some sort of crusty stain off the front of his shirt. He checked his watch and it was already 6pm. Perhaps a shower and a change of clothes would be a good idea.

Rose and Carrie meanwhile had been following up on the Professor. First they sneaked upstairs and tried to pick the lock on the Professor's room, but with no success. Frustrated, they returned to their room to decide what to do next.

"This is ridiculous," complained Rose. "The locks on those doors are not difficult to open. I reckon he's replaced his door lock you know."

"Why would he do that ?" asked Carrie, "Unless he's hiding something."

"We've got to get into that room," said Rose in a determined way.

"Yeah, but how ?" asked Carrie. "We can't get in the door. What else is there ?"

"There's the window," suggested Rose. The both leapt to their feet and went outside the building. They located where the Professor's room had to be and looked up to his first floor window. This part of the wall was covered in a thick creeper.

"You thinking what I'm thinking ?" asked Carrie.

Rose looked around to check how easily they could be seen from where they were standing. "It's possible, but it's risky. It all depends how strong that creeper is," she said.

"I'm willing to give it a go," said Carrie. It's only one floor up and I reckon I'm light enough to make it up that creeper.

"Alright, lets get some equipment," said Rose. They returned to their room and kitted themselves out with better shoes, microphones to talk to one another and took their Spy-pods. Carrie took a small rucksack.

Back outside the Professor's room the two girls checked out that the coast was definitely clear. This was a quiet part of the grounds and it appeared there was nobody nearby.

"OK," said Rose. "When you've climbed up to the height of the window, look around and make sure you still aren't visible to anyone. If you are, you're going to have to come straight back down. We don't want to blow our cover now."

"Don't worry," said Carrie. "I'll keep my eyes open." With this she started climbing up the creeper. She moved one foot or hand at a time and let her weight down gradually each time she grabbed a new piece of the creeper. It was dusty and awkward, but she managed to make her way up to the right window. Carefully she turned around to make sure she now wasn't in sight of anyone who wouldn't have seen her on the ground. "All clear Rose," she whispered. "I'm going to try to open the window now."

Carried inched her way to the window and slowly looked in. The room was empty. The Professor was supposed to be in classes for another hour at least. She pulled a metal bar from her backpack and levered it under the window. Luckily it wasn't locked and was one of the old style sash windows. It creaked open quite easily. "I've got it," she told Rose. "I'm going in."

Keeping lookout on the ground, Rose said, "You're clear to go. Be careful !"

Carrie slid through the open window and quickly looked around the room. First she looked in the wardrobe where there were only a few clothes and shoes. A jacket hung on the back of the door. She checked the pockets. There was one folded piece of paper which she took out, photographed with the contact lenses, refolded and replaced it. Then she moved to the bedside table and looked inside its small drawer. There was a faded black and white photograph of a large family. She copied this also and carefully replaced it. Then she moved on to the desk. It was the tidiest desk she had ever seen. As she opened the desk drawer a small thread fell on to the floor. Carrie remembered in her spy training that spies would place threads in drawers to catch people going through their things. She would have to replace the thread where it had come from. Only a few English teaching books were in the drawer so she closed it and put the thread back on the top of the drawer. There was no laptop and only a few letters and papers relating to the school.

Disappointed, she was considering searching the chest of drawers when a voice broke into her thoughts. It was Frank.

"The Professor is on the move. I think he's returning to his room. I repeat, the Professor is returning to his room. Get out now !" he ordered.

Replacing everything as carefully as she could, Carrie dashed for the window. Getting out was much more difficult than getting in because she had to get her feet safely back on to the narrow branches of the creeper. Once she had her balance she slowly pulled the window down. She heard the key turning in the lock. She had only just moved away from the window as the door opened. As quietly as she could she shuffled sideways into the bushiest part of the creeper next to the window. She could hear the Professor moving around his room. Suddenly the window was flung open and the Professor stuck his head out of the window. Carrie froze. Please let Rose be out of sight !

The Professor looked around but thankfully, did not spot Carrie in her dark clothes, hidden in the creeper's leaves. Rose had taken cover under some bushes and he also did not see her. With a huff he closed the window and returned to his room. She heard the door open and close and the lock turning again. "Frank," whispered Carrie. "Tell me when the Professor comes back downstairs please ?"

"Not yet," replied Frank. "Don't break cover yet."

Carrie waited for what seemed like an eternity before she heard the door lock turning a second time and then the door opening and closing. She breathed out a huge sigh of relief. "Has he really gone this time ?" she whispered.

"Just a minute," answered Frank. After a few seconds he said, "Yes, here he is. Now get out of there."

As quickly as she dared, Carried climbed down the creeper to a relieved Rose. The two of them then dashed to the back of the house to go in the trade entrance. Frank followed the Professor as discreetly as he could to the front door. He realised the Professor was going outside to check on his bedroom window.

"Rose, Carrie, he's coming out to check his window. Get out of sight quickly !" instructed Frank.

"It's alright Frank. We're back inside now," said Rose. See you in a minute ?

"Yes, Study Room 3 when nobody is looking," said Frank.

Once safely in the study room, Carrie downloaded the photos on to Frank's laptop. They all studied them. The folded paper was written in a foreign language, which Frank identified as Polish using some software on his laptop. They all looked at the family photograph, hoping for some clues to who the people were. Everyone was looking rather stern and they appeared to be sitting in a garden, but there was nothing particularly interesting which told you where it was taken. Frank said that Oscar didn't speak Polish, so there was no point asking him to translate it. He would send it off to HQ along with the photograph to have them analysed. Carrie was sorry she hadn't been able to find out more. The others consoled her that she had done all she could do. After Frank checked the coast was clear, Carrie and Rose left for their room to get ready for the special evening meal.

As they changed, the two discussed the mysterious Professor.

"He definitely knew someone had been in there," said Rose. "He pretended to leave to draw you out. I think there's definitely something fishy going on."

"The trouble is," pointed out Carrie, "he might have guessed that we are on to him. What will he do ?"

"We'll have to wait and see," said Rose.

"I wonder what he's going to wear," said Carrie.

"The Professor ?" asked Rose, baffled.

"No ! Oscar of course !" laughed Carrie.

"Oh, I don't know." said Rose. "Jeans, shirt. Does he ever wear anything else ?" They both laughed.


	6. Chapter 6

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High. Things start to get much darker tonight. Everyone is coming out of hiding.

Frank was hanging around the dining room, hoping to catch a word with Oscar when he came down. Oscar had sent a brief message saying that he had found nothing useful in the documentation which Rose had collected. The room was starting to fill when he spotted Oscar coming into the room. It took Frank a minute or two to recognise him because of how he was dressed. He'd never seen Oscar looking so smart. He was wearing some expensive looking black trousers and jacket with a midnight blue silk shirt. He'd slicked back his hair a little so that it almost looked like his MI High persona. There was still a hint of waviness left though. He looked at Carrie and Rose to check their reaction. Oh, yes, they had definitely seen him. Carrie's mouth was hanging open and Rose looked stunned.

Frank, went up to him when there weren't too many people around him. "Hello Alexi. You're looking very smart his evening," said Frank.

Oscar looked like he was waiting to be teased. Then he realised that Frank was being genuine. "Oh thanks," he said, in English, blushing. It seemed odd to be talking English now. "I'm sorry, there wasn't anything interesting in those documents," he said. "I felt bad poking my nose into their private lives," he added, looking round at some of the people he had been investigating.

"Sorry Oscar," muttered Frank under his breath. "Sometimes we have to do things we're not too happy about in this line of work. Carrie and Rose investigated the Professor this afternoon and didn't find anything much. There was a document in Polish which I have sent off for translation and an old photograph. He is definitely behaving suspiciously though. I want you to take care. I am wondering if we've been brought here under false pretences."

"I'll be careful," promised Oscar. This event is so public, I can't see him getting up to anything. At this point the room was filling and Illya came up to Oscar.

"Get your tracking device out and keep it enabled when you go up to your room tonight," ordered Frank. He then noticed Illya approaching them. "You have a good evening then," said Frank and walked away to talk with Marty.

"Alexi, neat outfit !" admired Illya. "Good hair too. The girls are going crazy." He nudged Oscar towards Carrie who was still snatching long looks at him. Oscar blushed again and Illya laughed. "What's the matter ? You're a good looking guy !" laughed Illya. "I bet the girls are always falling over you," he added.

Oscar looked embarrassed. "No they don't!" he said.

"You don't get out enough," teased Illya.

"You're not wrong there," muttered Oscar.

Further banter was interrupted when they were asked to take their seats for the meal to start. There were several courses, followed by speeches from Dr Fairweather and some of the other staff. Oscar and Illya went to the toilets, discussing how much longer things were going to go on for. When they returned to their seats they finished their drinks and sat watching as a disco was being set up. Oscar was feeling tired. He was struggling to keep his eyes open.

When the music started, Illya dragged him onto the dance floor, getting him to dance with one of the Russian girls. Oscar was feeling himself getting dizzy and stumbled into the girl he was supposed to be dancing with. Apologising, he staggered over to the side of the room and went out into the corridor to try and get some fresh air. A hand took firm hold of his shoulder and guided him towards the student rooms.

Frank and Marty chatted and spent some time dancing with some of the female staff. Mrs Peabody turned out to be quite a good dancer, surprising everyone. Pavel led a few of the Russians in some Cossack dancing, leaping about to cheers and shouting. This encouraged others to join in and each of the nationality groups demonstrated some of their traditional dances to great applause. It was nearly 11pm when Frank saw Rose trying to attract his attention. She looked worried.

"Frank, have you seen Oscar ?" she asked. He looked around, but could not see Oscar anywhere. Carried joined them.

"I can't find Oscar," she said. "Did he go up to his room ?"

"I'll go and check," said Frank. "Wait here."

A few minutes later Frank returned, looking worried. "No sign of him," he said.


	7. Chapter 7

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High.

Oscar has disappeared and help comes from an unexpected source.

Carrie and Rose had to help clear up the dining room ready for the following morning's breakfast. Mrs Peabody came over to speak to them.

"Thankyou ladies for all your help. You've worked exceptionally hard this evening so I've decided it's only fair to give you all of tomorrow off," she announced.

Carrie and Rose smiled, "Thanks Mrs Peabody." The housekeeper nodded and left.

"That's a stroke of luck," whispered Rose to Carrie. "We've got a major search on our hands tonight. If SKUL have got their hands on Oscar, well, I don't know," she tailed off.

"I know. We're going to find him Rose. We just are," said Carrie in a determined voice. The dining hall had cleared now, apart from Oscar's friend Illya who seemed to be searching around for something.

"Have you seen Alexi ? You know, blonde curly hair, usually very untidy ? Looked pretty hot tonight though yes ?" asked Illya lifting his eyebrows up and down.

Rose and Carrie had to laugh in spite of the situation. "No, sorry. He must have gone to bed," suggested Rose.

"Yes, good idea," replied Illya. "Goodnight," and he left to go upstairs.

They had turned off all the lights in the room when Frank came back to meet them in the hall. "Right, here's the situation. I've tried to radio Oscar on his communicator, but there's no reply. I've contacted HQ and let them know what's happened. They want to pull us out straight away, Yes, I know, I know," as the girls started to protest. "I've put them off until tomorrow afternoon. We've got to try and find Oscar ourselves. If MI9 turn up in force, it could make things worse. They are however, going to put a cordon round the building so nobody can leave or get in without us knowing. I'm going to install some cameras around the building so that HQ can monitor for us. I need you both to help me set them up. Go and get changed. We'll meet back here and start outside."

By midnight, the three agents had met back in the downstairs storage areas. They had installed several cameras around the outside of the building with views of all the doors. They had also crept around the inside of the building setting up cameras outside the Professor's empty room, outside Oscar's room and on some stairs and corridors.

"This is the plan," said Frank. "I'm going to patrol the corridors upstairs. I want you two to stay together at all times, but I want you to search downstairs. You are looking for any secret entrances, trap doors etc. Where does the housekeeper keep the keys ?" he asked. Rose told him that they were kept in a key locker in the kitchen. Frank picked its lock and let Rose and Carrie take the keys. "You've got access to all the downstairs rooms now. Look everywhere OK, particularly for any hidden basement area ?"

"Frank," said Rose. "Are there any blueprints for the building from when it was a secret military base? They could be useful."

"Excellent idea," agreed Frank. "I'll get on to HQ and see if they can track anything down. It's probably still classified. Let's get going. Time is critical." They nodded and split up. It was now well after midnight.

Frank crept upstairs as quietly as he could. The floorboards were incredibly creaky in this old building. He stopped outside Oscar's room and listened. Nothing. He moved off down the corridor to the left and found a chair to sit in. After a few minutes he thought he heard someone moving about. He stood up silently and crept towards the noise. As he turned the corner he bumped noses with someone else creeping in the opposite direction. They both leapt backwards and adopted a self-defence pose. "Who are you ?" they both said together.

Frank pulled out a torch and shone it between them. It was Illya. "Mr Manchester ?" said Illya. "What are you doing out here at this time ?" His accent wasn't nearly as strong as usual.

"I could ask you the same thing," said Frank. "Students are not meant to be wandering the corridors at this time of night."

"I am looking for Alexi," said Illya unexpectedly. "He is my friend and he has disappeared. Now what are you doing ?" he asked suspiciously.

Frank paused for a second, and then decided to take a risk. "Alright, look, I'm Alexi's protection." He pulled a card from his inside pocket. It was the identity card of a private security firm with a picture of Frank on it. "His father hired my firm to keep an eye on him while he was studying here."

Illya looked at the card with his own torch. "OK. Does Alexi know you are here ?" Frank nodded and took back the card. "So Alexi is missing isn't he ?"

Frank nodded again, looking worried. "We can't find him. It's not looking good."

"Is Professor Kalkfarben missing ?" asked Illya.

"He's not in his room. Why do you ask ?" asked Frank.

"There is something wrong with him," explained Illya. "I am not happy that students keep getting bad headaches and can't remember what they were doing all night. They are always students of Professor Kalkfarben and they are always very good English speakers."

"You're a very good English speaker," pointed out Frank.

"Yes, but I make a point of not being a very good English speaker when the Professor is around," said Illya with a grim smile.

"We're concerned about the Professor too," said Frank. "Look, I can't take responsibility for you wandering around when there might be trouble," said Frank. "It would be better if you went back to bed."

"No way," said Illya. "I'm staying until we find Alexi."

"OK, but you mustn't get in the way, understand ?" said Frank. Illya promised to do his best.

Then they heard another noise. There was a distant soft hum, followed shortly by heavy movements on the floorboards. Frank motioned Illya to follow him. They turned off their torches and the two sneaked down the dark corridor towards the noise. It was getting a little closer. Someone was whimpering softly.

"Shhh !" hissed a voice. "Silence now. We will get you to bed soon." The whimpering noise stopped.


	8. Chapter 8

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High.

_Frank motioned Illya to follow him. They turned off their torches and the two sneaked down the dark corridor towards the noise. It was getting a little closer. Someone was whimpering softly._

"Shhh !" hissed a voice. "Silence now. We will get you to bed soon." The whimpering stopped.

Frank and Illya crept up to the corner of the corridor and poked their heads round. Faint light from the ground floor security lights shone through the couple of windows along the corridor. A hulking, four-legged shape stepped out of the darkness and into one of the pools of light. It was Professor Kalkfarben with the arm of another person slung over his shoulder. He was supporting most of their weight. The other person was of course Oscar.

Oscar looked dreadful. His face gleamed with sweat and his eyes were glazed and blank. He looked sick and dizzy. Both Frank and Illya gasped involuntarily. The Professor looked up sharply and immediately turned with Oscar and dragged him back down the corridor.

"Stop right there !" shouted Frank and he and Illya sprang out and chased the Professor down the corridor. It should be an easy matter to catch him, Frank thought. He couldn't drag the nearly dead weight of Oscar very far. Perhaps the two of them would have run a little faster though if they'd realised what was about to happen.

The Professor and Oscar were hidden in a pool of darkness when Frank heard a couple of faint clicks, a hiss and realised that the dark shape of the two people ahead was disappearing into the wall.

"No ! You can't !" shouted Frank desperately. He and Illya sprinted and arrived just in time to find a thin dark line in the wall disappearing to nothing. Frank slammed both his hands against the wood panelling. "No !" He stopped, thinking frantically, what to do next.

"Find the light switch," he ordered Illya. Illya started searching the walls to find the switches. He found them and flicked on the lights. Frank was running his hands over the surface of the wall where the others had disappeared, searching for any indentation or alteration in the surface. He couldn't find anything. "I've got to contact my colleagues," he informed Illya. "Can you keep searching for anything which might control the door." Illya did as he was asked.

Frank opened his communicator to Rose and Carrie. "Rose, Carrie, we've seen Oscar with the Professor, but we've lost them. They've disappeared into some kind of hidden entrance on the second floor."

"Was Oscar alright " asked Carrie.

Frank hesitated. "No, not really," he said finally. "He was walking, but he didn't look very well."

Rose cut in. "Frank, you need to take a look at your spy pod. There's a message through from HQ and you need to read it."

"OK," agreed Frank. "You keep on searching for an entrance we can actually get into down there. We'll try up here a little longer. I'll get back to you when I've read the message."

"You call him Oscar," said Illya, looking curious.

"Yes, it's our code name for him," said Frank. "Too risky to use his real name in communications," he added, pleased with himself.

Frank took out his spy pod, which Illya looked at with interest. "So, you also have the new I-spud," he said. Frank was completely baffled.

"Erm, yes," he said, no idea what the boy was going on about. He pulled up the latest message from HQ. It read:

"For attention of Agent London and team. We have analysed the photograph which you sent and there is a 70% probability that the boy aged approximately 6 years old in the photograph is in fact a younger Professor Kalkfarben. We have not been able to identify any of the other people in the picture. We have also been unable to find any information relating to the Professor on any source. It is likely therefore that the Professor has assumed an alias."

No kidding, thought Frank sarcastically. The message continued.

"The text document is a letter in Polish from a missing persons service concerning the disappearance of a family named Wiesnowski during the second world war. The letter reports that they were sent to a detention facility in Russia and were never heard from again. Missing, presumed dead. It is not clear who was sent the letter, but it is likely to be the Professor, who is possibly then called Wiesnowski. We will investigate this further and let you know of any progress. We have not yet traced any blueprints for Long Slipper Hall."

"Anything of use ?" asked Illya.

Frank decided there was no harm in letting the boy know what was going on. It didn't compromise Oscar or the others in any way. "The Professor's real name may be Wiesnowski. His Polish family disappeared in Russia during the second world war. We don't know any more than that."

"He has been taking all the best Russian to English translators," stated Illya.

"Well, Osc, erm Alexi would certainly be one of the best available," said Frank.

"Why ? And what is he doing to them to make them so sick ?" asked Illya.

"I don't know," said Frank grimly. "If he's going back to do it again though, it can't be good for Alexi. We've got to find him quickly before things get worse. We need those blueprints." He sent a message to HQ telling them that the blueprints for the building were now top priority.


	9. Chapter 9

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High.

"_We've got to find him quickly before things get worse. We need those blueprints." Frank sent a message to HQ telling them that the blueprints for the building were now top priority._

Oscar felt half awake and half asleep. It was like the worst flu ever. His head was boiling and dizziness made it nearly impossible to stand up. Where was he ? He was shuffling through a darkened room, being supported by somebody. He turned his head to look, which brought on another wave of dizziness. Peering in the half dark he realised it was Professor Kalkfarben.

"What are you doing ? Where am I ?" asked Oscar.

"Ah, the drug is wearing off," muttered the Professor. "Come along," he instructed. He tried to speed Oscar along, but Oscar held back as best he could.

"No. No. What's going on ? Where is this ?" he cried out, pulling away from the Professor. The Professor moved to grab him, and Oscar dropped into a defensive pose. He kicked out at the Professor, who easily dodged his relatively slow movement. Unfortunately the kick left Oscar off balance and the Professor landed a heavy blow to the side of Oscar's face with his fist. Head exploding with pain, Oscar bounced off the wall and fell unconscious to the floor.

"Ach, this could cause damage," said the Professor. He grabbed Oscar by the arms and dragged him to a chair in the middle of the room.

Meanwhile, Frank was growing tired of trying to gain access to the secret door. "I need to go and help the others," said Frank. "There's got to be another way in."

"Why don't I go and get some help," suggested Illya. Frank thought about it. This was gradually turning into the international incident that MI9 HQ was desperate to avoid. Still the place was going to be in uproar by tomorrow afternoon anyway, so why not ?

"OK. Let's do it," agreed Frank. Illya immediately sprinted off down the corridor. He returned quickly with a small group of sleepy and curious Russian teens. Frank noticed that he had picked out the largest, but possibly not the cleverest. It was quite an impressive wall of muscle.

Illya pointed at the wall. In Russian he explained, "Here. This is where the Professor and Alexi disappeared into the wall. Alexi looked very sick. I think the Professor has been doing something which is giving people the headaches, like you Oleg." He pointed to a very beefy blonde boy, a little older than Oscar.

"If it was the Professor, he is going to feel the strength of my fist," he threatened. He looked really angry. "My head was killing me for two days."

"OK," said Frank. He had understood a little of what was being said, because he knew what Illya would be telling them. "Can you please all get to work trying to get access this hidden door ? I am going to help some colleagues of mine who are trying to get access at a lower level." They all nodded vigorously and started discussing amongst themselves how best to solve the problem.

"We need tools," said Pavel. "I am going to find some," and he set off downstairs.

Illya saw Frank watching Pavel go, looking worried. "It is OK. He is going to find tools," he explained. Happier, Frank thanked him for his help. "Do not worry. We will find Alexi," assured Illya.

Frank passed Pavel on his way back up the stairs carrying a large toolbox from one of the downstairs storerooms. He realised that it was going to get pretty noisy soon. Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound. He wondered what Stark would have to say about it all, and this made him laugh grimly. Rescuing Oscar was the top priority right now and the Russians seemed to be enjoying themselves.

He found Rose and Carrie in a basement room piled with broken chairs and tables. It was a typical dumping ground like the spare storage room at school. Rose was running the spy pod over one area of the wall. "Frank, we might be on to something here," said Rose. "There's a different thermo-dynamic signature from this area of the wall."

"Can I kick it ?" asked Carrie.

"Not now Carrie," replied Frank.

Just then the spy pods tweeted the arrival of a high priority message. It was the blueprints. They poured over the blueprints, which were not easy to study on the small screens of the spy pods. Rose homed in on the area they were standing in. There was an 'X' marked against the wall, with 'no longer in use' marked against it.

"Can I kick it now ?" asked Carrie.

"We need some tools," said Rose, ignoring her. Frank remembered Pavel disappearing upstairs with the toolbox.

"Ah, that could be a problem," he said.

"Right, I've had it," said Carrie, frustrated. She took an almighty kick at the centre of the bricked up area they had been outlining. "Hiee Yaah," she shouted. The wall shook and wobbled.

"Wait," instructed Frank. He hunted round and picked up a small table with three legs. With Carrie holding one leg and him the other two he said, "After three. One, two, three !" and the two of them slammed the table into the loosened area of wall. A section collapsed to the floor. "Oh well, I suppose stealth is out of the question now !" complained Frank. He took the table and knocked down a few remaining loose bricks.

"Yeah. Bring it on," said Carrie, sounding grim.


	10. Chapter 10

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High. Some quite scary bits in this chapter.

_Frank took hold of the table and knocked down a few remaining loose bricks._

"_Yeah. Bring it on," said Carrie, sounding grim._

"Let's go," said Frank. "Keep an eye open for any booby-traps. We have no idea how this place has been left." Carrie and Rose nodded grimly as they stepped through into the dark room beyond the collapsed wall.

Switching on their torches they found the room was empty. The went through a door at the end into another dark corridor. There were numerous doors off the corridor, all of which lead to further empty rooms.

"How big is this place ?" wondered Carrie. "It goes on forever."

At the end of the corridor they came to a junction and a set of stairs leading upwards. "Where now ?" asked Rose. "Let's check the blueprints and see where these stairs and corridors go." The three of them studied the prints. Again, this was a slow process because the screen was so small and the plans of the building were substantial. "There's a whole other building under this one," said Rose, amazed. "The complex seems to extend upwards into the Hall too."

"The Professor used a door on the second floor," said Frank. "Its possible we are looking for an area up inside the house. There's no sign of life down here."

"Maybe we should split up," suggested Carrie.

"No, I want us all to stick together," said Frank. "The professor clearly knows this place better than we do. I don't want to risk losing anyone else. Upstairs ?" They agreed and set off upwards.

At the top of the stairs was another door, but they could see faint light shining around its frame. Frank nodded at the others and signalled a countdown, three, two, one, then slammed open the door.

Oscar's eyes flickered open. He was staring at a wall in a dimly lit room. His head was so painful, he couldn't bear to move it. He tried to lift his hand, but couldn't. Slowly he moved his head to see why. He was sitting in some kind of dentist's chair. Leather straps held his wrists tightly. He couldn't move his legs so assumed they were also strapped. A pair of hands appeared to attach wires to his chest inside his shirt. The nightmare of the situation hit him, and his heart beat loudly in his ears.

"Be calm and you will not suffer too much," instructed a clipped voice. Slowly he turned his head and saw Professor Kalkfarben altering switches and settings on a strange set of electronics by his side. A monitor was displaying his pounding heartbeat.

"What are you doing ? What are you doing to me ?" whispered Oscar.

"You will see shortly," answered the Professor. "You need not worry, you have been here before. Unfortunately, this would be much less uncomfortable with the benefit of drugs, but I do not have a supply here, so we will have to continue without them. My work is too important to give up now. I must complete my mission before we are interrupted."

"So, what I require you to do, is listen to the voices you will hear. They will be speaking in Russian and you are to translate them into English. The microphone will record what you say," explained the Professor in a matter-of-fact voice.

"No !" hissed Oscar. "Do your own translating. I'm not doing anything for you."

"Sadly it is not possible for me to carry out this work," said the Professor regretfully. "The procedure has long term side effects so I am limited to using various subjects for short periods of time."

"I am not a subject !" whispered Oscar hoarsely. "Let me go !" He pulled at the wrist restraints. "What is this thing ?"

"Ah, my own invention. It allows me to project a listening position into any distant location remotely," he explained proudly. "I developed it for the military but they refused to take it further after just one unfortunate incident," he said in an insulted tone of voice.

"What incident ?" asked Oscar, half wishing not to know.

"One of the test subjects spent too long using the device and sadly was brain-damaged," explained the Professor, again in a completely matter-of-fact tone of voice.

Oscar was horrified. "Let me go !" he whispered desperately.

"Later," said the Professor. "Now we shall begin. I'm afraid this will be a little uncomfortable." He lifted what looked like a thin metal motorcycle helmet off a table. A mass of wires attached to the top of the helmet, leading back behind Oscar's head. He seemed to be attaching the helmet to the chair above Oscar's head. The chair tilted backwards and the Professor's hand gripped Oscar's chin and forced his head back. Oscar felt the helmet lowering over his head, until it covered his eyes and locked his head in position. There was a click and the helmet tightened hard against his head, seeming to mould itself to the shape of his skull. He groaned in discomfort and fear. He made another whimper of pain when dozens of sharp needle points seemed to prick into his head.

He couldn't move his head, couldn't see or hear anything and was terrified. He felt something tightening across his shoulders, then his thighs, fixing him firmly against the chair. He was now completely immobile.

Lost and frightened in the dark, Oscar suddenly heard the Professor's voice in his ear. "Good. You will shortly hear some voices and you are to begin translating."

"No," said Oscar. His whisper sounded strange and deep, rattling around his skull.

"The process does result in some pain to the head," the Professor explained in his odd tinny electronic voice. "If you refuse to translate, I shall increase the amplification which sadly does increase the degree of pain. Do you understand ?" he asked.

"Yes," whispered Oscar. There was nothing he could do except comply.

"Excellent," said the voice. Everything went silent again. Then abruptly a piercing pain shot through his head and he could hear voices in conversation. Oscar gasped in pain and struggled pointlessly against the restraints.

"Translate !" boomed the Professor's voice over the others. The voices became louder and the pain became excruciating. Oscar struggled to concentrate and started speaking. The voices became quieter and the pain lessened.

Oscar was lost in a world of pain and Russian to English translation. It became harder and harder to concentrate through the pain. He could feel himself becoming hotter and hotter. He was dimly aware that sweat was trickling down his throat. His voice faltered as hallucinations began to intrude on what he was hearing. His mother was standing in front of him laughing.

"Stupid boy ! Did you think you were going to have any kind of life without me ? Did you ?" she was saying.

Then Frank appeared saying, "It's just not good enough Oscar. You have to try harder or I shall have you thrown out of MI High."

"No please," whispered Oscar. "I haven't got anywhere to go," he pleaded.

"Concentrate ! Not much longer," instructed a strange voice. Who was that ? Oscar was adrift in his own personal nightmare.


	11. Chapter 11

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High. Apologies to anyone who knows more about medical conditions than I do.

"_Translate !" boomed the Professor's voice over the others. The voices became louder and the pain became excruciating. Oscar struggled to concentrate and started speaking. The voices became quieter and the pain lessened._

"This is MI9. Surrender yourself Wiesnowski !" shouted Frank as he, Carrie and Rose burst through the door.

They were in a large, but mostly empty room with a mass of electronic equipment gathered in the centre. The Professor was standing behind a large object with lots of wires leading to it.

"No, you stay away. It is not finished !" shouted the Professor.

They ran forwards then stopped in horror when they could finally see what the Professor was standing next to. Oscar was strapped into some crazy chair with a metal helmet pressed over his head. He was muttering gibberish and shivering beneath the straps.

Frank was sure he heard Oscar whisper, "Please, I haven't got anywhere to go" before he fell silent.

"Switch this thing off now !" shouted Frank.

The Professor grabbed a metal box with a switch and dial on it. "No. Come any nearer and I will kill him. I swear. I will turn up this dial to maximum and then it will be over," he threatened. Frank, Rose and Carrie froze in their steps. The Professor backed away from them. "You will let me go." He was backing away towards the far wall where they could just make out the outline of a door.

Suddenly there was a crash, and as the Professor half turned to look, the doorway crashed and splintered open as a wall of Russian muscle hurtled through shouting. They rammed into the Professor, knocking him and the control device flying. Carrie leapt forward into a flying dive, grabbed the control device and rolled neatly to her feet. She dashed back to Frank and Rose. They saw the switch marked "On/Off" and flicked it. The machine immediately stopped humming and Oscar stopped shivering.

By now, Pavel and Oleg had the Professor by both arms. He stopped struggling when he realised he stood no chance against their sheer strength. "Russians !" he shouted and spat on the floor. "I hate all of you. You killed all of my family."

"I do not know your family," said Pavel puzzled. "How did I kill them ?"

"Not you, those other Russians," yelled the Professor.

Meanwhile, Rose had been carefully lifting the helmet off Oscar's head. His face and head were bright red. Rose felt his forehead which was burning. Carrie and Frank undid all the straps.

"Illya, can you come and help me lift Oscar out of this thing ?" asked Frank. Illya ran over and he and Frank gently lifted Oscar up from the chair. Carrie grabbed a woollen blanket which was covering a bank of equipment and folded it on the floor. They laid Oscar on the blanket, resting his head as gently as they could. Almost immediately, Oscar started convulsing.

"His head is too hot. We've got to cool it down somehow, or he's going to suffer brain damage," warned Frank. "Can you find some ice ?" he asked Rose.

"Kitchen !" said Carrie. "I'll put it in plastic bags."

"I will help," offered Pavel, handing the Professor over to Oleg and one of the other boys. The two of them dashed out through the door leading to the downstairs. Frank asked Rose to look after Oscar while he called in MI9 and medical help for Oscar. He wasn't getting a communication signal in the lab room. He also dashed out of the door.

A couple of minutes later, Carrie and Pavel returned with a big bag of ice and lots of smaller food bags. "Try to crush it up a little," suggested Rose. Pavel obliged by smashing the bag against the floor. They part-filled a number of smaller bags with ice and placed some under Oscar's head and the others around his head. They watched desperately for any change and after a few minutes the shaking and jerking of Oscar's body stopped. Everyone breathed sighs of relief.

At this moment, someone new stepped into the room, through the upstairs corridor entrance. It was Dr. Fairweather, wearing pyjamas and a dressing gown.

"What is going on here ?" he asked in disbelief.

Illya spoke up. "The Professor has been using students in experiments. He was making all the headaches !"

"Professor Kalkfarben, what is the meaning of this ?" Horrified, Dr. Fairweather looked down at the still, silent Oscar with a huge bruise forming on the side of his face. "Oh my God, what have you done ?"

"I had to," said the Professor, defiantly. Oleg punched him hard in the face.

"What did you do that for ?" asked Dr. Fairweather.

"I had to," explained Oleg, sarcastically.

Dr. Fairweather knelt down next to Oscar and felt his pulse. "It is very erratic," he said. Rose was monitoring Oscar's heart beat with her Spy Pod.

"He was convulsing a minute ago," she said. "We think it's because of his brain overheating. Oh no !" she cried out. Oscar's pulse had suddenly stopped.

"Let me," instructed Dr. Fairweather. He started CPR on Oscar's chest, making rapid pumping actions against his rib cage.

With tears rolling down her cheeks, Rose was struggling to read the screen of her Spy Pod. Carrie was hugging her. The others gathered closer together and watched in silence. "Wait, I think it's working," whispered Rose. There was a reading of a shallow heartbeat showing on her screen. She and Carrie hugged one another. Carrie was also crying. "Thankyou, Dr. Fairweather," said Rose gratefully.

"That is the least I can do," said Dr Fairweather quietly.

At this point, Frank ran back into the room followed by several MI9 agents and Chief Agent Stark himself. They were followed by a medical team carrying a stretcher. The paramedics knelt beside Oscar.

"His heart stopped beating. I managed to resuscitate him using CPR," explained Dr. Fairweather as he stepped out of their way. "He was previously convulsing."

"We've been putting ice round his head to try to cool it down," explained Rose. The paramedics nodded their understanding and got to work.

"So, you managed to employ this man without finding his real identity ?" Stark asked Dr. Fairweather sarcastically.

"Well, he wasn't the only one to do that was he ?" Frank asked angrily.

"I had my team carry out the necessary background checks," said Stark defensively. "They said they found nothing …." he trailed off, as realisation dawned. "I assumed, that they meant they had found nothing unusual," he added.

"They meant they didn't find anything," hissed Frank, "because there is nothing. Professor Kalkfarben doesn't exist, does he ?" he directed this question at the Professor. The Professor hung his head.

"I just wanted to find out what happened to my family," he said quietly. "They all disappeared into thin air. I had to know. I knew you would provide a good translator. These boys have erm limitations," he added, nodding towards the Russians.

"Well, thanks for nothing !" complained Oleg.

"He is mad !" complained Pavel.

Illya was looking thoughtful.

The paramedics had now covered Oscar with monitors and wires, put fresh ice bags round his head and loaded him onto the stretcher. They pushed him quickly out of the room.

"Have you got an ambulance waiting ?" Frank asked Stark.

"No," said Stark.

"What ?" asked Frank horrified.

"What do you take me for ?" complained Stark. "I brought a helicopter. He's going to get the best we can provide."


	12. Chapter 12

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High.

"_What do you take me for ?" complained Stark. "I brought a helicopter. He's going to get the best we can provide."_

Stark was true to his word. When Frank, Carrie and Rose arrived at the MI9 hospital, Oscar was in intensive care, hooked up to every machine the hospital possessed. At least that is what it looked like to his team looking through the observation window. He was only recognisable by the big purple bruise on his face.

A doctor approached them. "Agent London ?" he asked Frank, who nodded. "I am Doctor Omar and I am in charge of Oscar's care," he said shaking Frank's hand.

"Oscar is critically ill," he began. "We have put him in a medical coma, which is being maintained by drugs. Your early action in cooling his brain may well have saved his life. The cap you can see over his head is providing the cooling now and also monitoring brain activity. We are aiming to keep that activity to a minimum in order to allow his brain time to recover."

"How long is he going to stay like that ?" asked Carrie.

"We are monitoring brain activity to find a suitable time to bring him out of the coma, but we're estimating about four days," explained the doctor.

"Is he going to be alright ?" asked Rose quietly.

"I'm afraid I can't answer that until he wakes up," said the doctor. "We're giving him the best chance that we can." They thanked Dr Omar and left silently.

The next four days felt like the longest of Rose's and Carrie's lives. Finally, they got a call from Frank telling them to meet him and he took them to the hospital.

They looked through the window into Oscar's room to see a cluster of medical staff, including Dr Omar gathered around the equipment surrounding his bed. Dr Omar was shining a small light into Oscar's eyes. He glanced up and gestured for them to come in.

Oscar's eyes were open though he looked tired and sleepy. Carrie was crying as she took his hand and pressed it to her cheek. Oscar looked at her.

"What's the matter ?" he murmured. Carrie laughed out loud, crying at the same time. Then Rose and Frank had their arms round her and each other, hugging, crying and laughing.

They were asked to leave shortly after. Dr Omar wanted Oscar to get some natural sleep. Frank looked back at the already sleeping boy. He looked frail and battered. They had come so close to losing him. Frank decided that he was going to have a long talk with Oscar as soon as he was able.

It was two days later when he decided Oscar was well enough to talk for a while. Frank sat on a chair next to Oscar's bed. Oscar was propped up to half way sitting. He was still getting dizzy enough to be sick, so the staff were gradually getting him upright. "Oscar you said something quite odd when you were connected to the Professor's machine. I think you said 'I don't have anywhere to go'. Do you remember why you said that ?"

Oscar looked a little sheepish. "I remember," he said quietly. "I had a nightmare. You were telling me that I wasn't trying hard enough and you were going to throw me out of M.I. High."

Frank tried not to show how upset he was on hearing this. "Oscar, I know how hard you work. I am pleased with everything you do. You are one of the best language specialists in MI9 regardless of your age." Oscar looked up at this and his face brightened a little.

"You really are pleased ?" he asked.

"Yes of course. I don't expect you to deal with everything by yourself. You have a team and you have me to help. If your guardian is going away, you need someone to look after you. Who buys your clothes ?" he asked.

"Oh, I take some money out of my allowance and get them myself when I have time," explained Oscar.

"Your allowance is not supposed to be for the things that you need," said Frank. "It's meant to be for things that you want, like when you go on holiday." Oscar looked completely baffled. "You do go on holiday don't you ?" Oscar slowly shook his head.

"I can't go anywhere on my own can I ?" he said.

"Doesn't anyone take you ?" asked Frank. Again Oscar shook his head. He then stared down at his hands on the bed.

"It's OK," Oscar assured Frank. "I'm used to it."

Frank was horrified. He couldn't speak for a moment as he realised what kind of life Oscar had been struggling with quietly and uncomplaining. It wasn't a life. It was an existence. Then he started to feel angry. It just wasn't good enough.

"Oscar, when did you last go on holiday ?" asked Frank.

Oscar thought carefully. "Erm, I think I went away with Mum once."

There was silence for a minute, then Frank made a decision. "Look Oscar, I'm not happy with the way you've been treated. You shouldn't be taking on all this responsibility. You are already taking on enough with your job for M.I. High."

Oscar started to look worried. "I won't have to move again will I ?" he asked. "I can't face it again, please ?" he begged.

Frank took Oscar's hand in his and said, "Oscar, I promise you I will not do anything you are unhappy with, alright ?" Oscar nodded. "I am going to make things better though. I promise," he added. Oscar smiled properly.


	13. Chapter 13

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High.

_Frank took Oscar's hand in his and said, "Oscar, I promise you I will not do anything you are unhappy with, alright ?" Oscar nodded. "I am going to make things better though. I promise," he added. Oscar smiled properly. _

Frank was called to MI9 HQ later that day. Agents had been dealing with the situation at Long Slipper Hall. Things had been a little tricky with the Russian government when they became aware of what had happened, but fortunately the students themselves had been very helpful in convincing everyone that it had been the fault of a rogue individual. The Professor was going to be prosecuted for his assaults on the students and Oscar. The school was going to remain open, although all of the secret underground facilities were going to be blocked up properly and made inaccessible.

Stark was cross because all of the Professor's translation recordings had disappeared. "I can't believe they could simply disappear !" he complained to Frank and anyone who would listen. "They could be potentially useful."

"They could be potentially useless too," said Frank. "We have no idea where Wiesnowski was listening into. He gave us coordinates, but it could have been anything. The man is completely obsessed. I hope you are dismantling his equipment."

"We are," said Stark forcefully. "Nobody is going to suffer from that madman again. I'll have it reduced to a pile of dust if I can." He paused and coughed. "The boy is recovering isn't he ?" he asked.

"Yes, thank goodness. He seems to be making a slow but full recovery," said Frank gratefully. "While we're on the subject of Agent Cole, I want to make a few changes..." They had a long discussion and Frank got the changes that he wanted agreed.

It was as he was about to leave that Stark called him back. "I forgot. One of the Russian students, Illya, said that he was a friend of Agent Cole and asked if he could visit him in hospital. I said that should be acceptable. Could you organise it London ?" Surprised, Frank agreed. He'd liked Illya. Very resourceful for a boy his age.

A day later, Oscar was almost sitting up in bed when there was a knock on his door and a familiar head popped round. "Hey Oscar, how are you ?" asked Illya.

Oscar's face split into a big grin. "OK thanks. How do you know my name ?"

"Well I asked didn't I, dummy. Everyone was calling you 'Oscar' so it was obvious you were not called 'Alexi'. It's a pity, I liked Alexi," he laughed. "I really liked his I-spud too !" Oscar really laughed. "So you are top secret agent huh ?" asked Illya.

"Well, MI9 were asked to investigate Long Slipper Hall, so they needed someone the right age," explained Oscar. He though the less he said about his job the better.

"Oh, I think you are just being modest," teased Illya. Oscar was still looking pale and the bruise on his face was now going through the last green and purple phase. "Do you remember much about it ?" he asked seriously.

"I remember everything up to the party," said Oscar. "I can't remember anything else until I woke up here."

"I think that is best," said Illya, sounding relieved. "It was a horrible experience. You don't want to get the night horses."

"The what ?" asked Oscar.

"You know. The bad dreams," explained Illya.

"Oh, nightmares," said Oscar.

"Yes, that is the word. Nightmares," agreed Illya. "So, you don't remember anything that the Professor made you listen to ?" he asked casually.

"Nope, nothing," said Oscar.

"I am glad," said Illya. He sounded very pleased. "Otherwise I might have to kill you !" he laughed hysterically. Oscar laughed too. Illya was such a tease. After a little further chat and promising to visit again, Illya left.

Oscar was soon moved out of intensive care to a smaller room because he was recovering so well. One afternoon, Illya turned up again. He was carrying a classic car magazine. "Thought you would like this," he said. Oscar loved cars and was grateful to have something to look at. He was starting to get bored now that he could do a little more. Illya tossed it onto the side table. It had a large yellow post-it note stuck on the cover. "Would you like to go for a short walk ?" asked Illya. "We could walk to the patients' garden. It's not far from here. The doctor said you could go."

"OK," agreed Oscar, surprised. It would be nice to get out of these four walls for a change. He hadn't been allowed out at all until now.

Illya helped him out of bed and into his dressing gown. Holding onto Oscar's arm to support him, he led him out into the hospital corridor, and they walked unnoticed out into the main hallway. They took the lift down several floors and came out into what looked like a maintenance area.

"Are you sure this is the right way ?" asked Oscar. He was starting to feel tired and getting a little dizzy from the effort of walking.

"Yes, I found a shortcut," said Illya. He was looking over his shoulder and starting to look worried. "Are you OK ? Do you need a rest ?" Oscar nodded and Illya sat him in a chair at the side of the corridor. After a short while, Illya straightened suddenly and said, "We have to get moving. Come !"

He had to lift Oscar up out of the chair. Oscar didn't have the strength. "I can't go any further," said Oscar weakly. "I can't do it."

Illya put Oscar's arm over his shoulder and half carried him down the corridor. "Sorry, we have to keep moving," he said. Again he looked back over his shoulder. "Come on !" he muttered.

"What are you doing ?" asked Oscar.

"Oscar, I am very, very sorry," said Illya. "I have no choice."

At this moment the doors at the end of the corridor in front of them burst open. A group of men stood at the end of the corridor. "Illya, hurry up !" they ordered, in Russian. "Bring the boy here !"

Almost immediately after, the doors behind them also banged open and Frank and other MI9 agents ran through. "This is MI9. You are under arrest !" shouted Frank. Illya was pulled away from Oscar and he sank weakly to the floor, now shaking with exhaustion. The Russians at the far end of the corridor turned and ran as Illya was pulled away in the opposite direction. Frank knelt down to Oscar who was suddenly violently sick. "It's alright Oscar. Everything is going to be fine," assured Frank.


	14. Chapter 14

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters I have borrowed from MI High. A little light cheese to end.

_The Russians at the far end of the corridor turned and ran as Illya was pulled away in the opposite direction. Frank knelt down to Oscar who was suddenly violently sick. "It's alright Oscar. Everything is going to be fine," assured Frank._

A couple of hours later Frank came into Oscar's room. There was now a guard posted outside the door. Oscar was lying flat in his bed again looking ill and very upset. Frank sat down beside him and took his hand. "Well, Oscar, looks like you're not the only teenage spy around here," said Frank gently. "It turns out that Illya was spying for the Russians. They had become concerned about information leaking out about one of their secret facilities and Illya was sent to investigate the language school. It was him who removed all of the Professor's recordings. The Russians were worried you might remember some of what you listened in on."

"But I told Illya I didn't remember anything," said Oscar weakly.

"This is what Illya reported, but his bosses refused to believe it and insisted you had to be killed," explained Frank carefully.

There were tears in Oscar's eyes. "I thought he was my friend," he whispered.

"He is Oscar. A very good friend," assured Frank.

Oscar looked at him incredulously. "How. He was taking me to be killed !" said Oscar.

"He had to convince his bosses that he was," explained Frank slowly. "He was wired for sound so he couldn't say anything. He left this behind for me." Frank showed Oscar the car magazine with the post-it note. The note read, "Dear Agent London, this is an emergency. I have been ordered to take Oscar to be killed. I cannot do this, but they have wired me for sound and I have to obey. I am taking Oscar down to the maintenance corridor and out of the back door. Please get there before we do. Illya."

"Is he alright ?" asked Oscar, trying to take it all in.

"Yes, he's fine. He's here. Would you like to see him ?" asked Frank.

"Yes please," whispered Oscar. Frank stuck his head round the door and spoke to someone. Illya came in quietly. He looked down at Oscar lying in bed and was clearly upset.

"I have made you very ill again," he said. "I am so sorry for this. I could not think of another way.." he broke off.

"It's alright," whispered Oscar. He gestured for Illya to come over to his bed. As Illya bent over Oscar gave the other boy a small hug. Illya returned a much bigger hug gratefully, but as gently as he could. They broke apart, looking embarrassed but more relaxed. Illya knew he was forgiven. He and Frank left so that Oscar could rest.

Outside Oscar's room, Illya turned to Frank and pulled a cardboard folder out of his jacket. "Oh, you can give this to Professor Wiesnowski," he said.

"What is it," asked Frank.

"It explains what happened to his family in the war," said Illya. "I found it before I had to, well, leave. You will need to get it translated for him. Hopefully he will not need to hurt anyone again," said Illya quietly.

Taking the file, Frank said, "We have to pretend we have put you in prison you know. You can't go back to Russia now."

"Yes, I know," said Illya quietly. He paused and then looked up cheekily at Frank. "I don't suppose you have any jobs going do you ?" he asked.

Frank smiled back. "We just might. And I know an good place for you to stay too."

It was over a week later before Oscar was allowed to leave hospital, with strict instructions to rest. Frank drove him back to his guardian's house. As they pulled into the driveway, Oscar looked apologetically over at Frank and said, "I'm really sorry about this, but I don't think there's any food in the house. I need to get some shopping first."

Frank looked back at Oscar and laughed. "No you don't. Come on." Frank carried Oscar's suitcase from the language school up to the house for him. He rang the doorbell. Oscar wondered what he was doing. There was nobody in. To his amazement, the door opened and a lady somewhere in her fifties stood in the doorway.

"Agent London. And you must be Oscar," she said. "Come on in."

Oscar went inside and Frank carried his bag upstairs for him. The house looked really clean and there was a delicious smell of cooking food coming from the kitchen. He stood in the hallway, confused as Frank bounced back down the stairs.

"Oscar, meet Mrs Madison," he said waving his hand at the new lady. "She is going to be your housekeeper from now on. She's going to take care of running the house, cooking and getting you what you need.

"Hello, Mrs Madison," Oscar said shyly.

"Oh, you can call me Aggie," she said laughing. Oscar thought she had a really nice smile.

"Oh, and you're going to be sharing Mrs Madison with your new housemate," smiled Frank. Out of the sitting room door stepped Illya. The two boys grinned at one another, Oscar in surprise.

"Are you staying for dinner Agent London ?" asked Mrs Madison.

"I'd love to," said Frank.

As Mrs Madison went to the kitchen, Oscar leaned close to Frank and whispered, "How much does she know ? You know, about me ?"

Frank smiled at Oscar and murmured back, "She knows everything. You don't need to tell her anything Oscar." A flood of relief washed through Oscar and a tension he didn't know was there disappeared. He suddenly felt very tired.

"I'm going to sit down," said Oscar.

"Let's do that," replied Frank. Frank, Oscar and Illya sat down together in the living room. They chatted about what had happened at the language school until Mrs Madison called them through to eat. She also ate with them. They were laughing and chatting when suddenly everything hit Oscar like a train. He was really happy. It was so strange. For the first time in years, he felt free, as if a huge burden was lifted from his back. Tears started rolling down his face, and he couldn't eat any more of the wonderful food.

"Oscar are you alright ?" asked Frank, concerned.

"Oscar, are you ill again," asked Illya.

"I think Oscar is just a little too tired now," said Mrs Madison. "Perhaps it's time he went upstairs, hm ?" she suggested to Oscar. He nodded. She took him up to his room where she showed him a new pair of pyjamas. His bed had been remade with clean bedclothes and all of his laundry had been tidied away. After he'd got ready for bed there was a knock at the door. Illya popped his head round.

"I'm in the bedroom next door, if you need anything OK ?" said Illya. "Mrs Madison is in the room downstairs. See you in the morning ?" Oscar nodded tiredly and Illya left.

Oscar got into bed. There was a knock at the door and Frank looked in. "Is everything alright Oscar," he asked.

"It's great," said Oscar. "Thanks." Frank nodded and smiled.

"See you later then," said Frank, and left.

Oscar was just reaching over for the bedside lamp when there was another knock at the door. It was Mrs Madison. "Mrs Madison," said Oscar.

"Aggie," she insisted.

"Aggie," said Oscar. "What is it ?"

She came over and sat on the edge of his bed. "Oscar, I am here to look after you and Illya. If you ever need anything, you are to let me know. If you need to tell me anything, I'm here to listen. Alright ?" She looked at him. "Do you need a hug ?" He nodded. Oscar sat up and she wrapped him up in his duvet and rocked him gently in her arms while he sobbed his heart out.

Eventually he fell asleep from exhaustion and she laid him back down, tucking him in. She left quietly, shutting the door behind her and found Illya outside waiting, looking concerned.

"Is he OK now ?" he asked.

"Yes. I think that was long overdue, don't you ?" she asked Illya.

He smiled slightly. "I think yes," he said. "You would make a really good Granny you know," he said cheekily.

She pretended to be upset. "Away to bed with you !" she said, slapping him on the back. "Granny ! Hmph !" and she went off downstairs. Illya took himself off to bed as instructed. Life had just taken a turn for the better.

The End

(Sorry it's a bit of a long chapter. I had to tidy up the loose ends. Thankyou to the people who reviewed.)


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